Mass provision of healthcare through a digital medium can be greatly enhanced by the use of serious games. The accessibility and engagement provided by a serious game to the subject can significantly increase participation. The commercial games industry employs numerous techniques to analyse soft data collected from early users of an application to evolve the application itself and improve the experience of playing it. A game for mass stereoacuity testing of young children is used as a case study in this paper, to illustrate how soft feedback can be used to improve the effectiveness of a clinical trial. The key to the approach is identified as rapid incremental evolution of the application and trial protocol in a manner which increases the amount and usefulness of soft data collected, and reacts to issues identified in the soft data in a timely fashion. It is hoped that the approach can be adopted for a wide range of digital applications for mass health provision.
Background. Although considered important, the involvement of young children in research is rare and its impact has never been measured. We aim to provide a good practice example of involvement of young children in the development of a tablet-based 3D eye test or stereotest, ASTEROID. We focus on improving understanding of test instructions. Methods. After a pre-measure of understanding was taken, we explored issues with the test instructions in patient and public involvement (PPI) sessions. Feedback was collected via observations, rating scales and children's comments. An interdisciplinary panel reviewed the feedback and decided on the implementation. Subsequently, a post-measure was collected. In Study 1, 650 children (2-11.8 years old) took part in the pre-measure, 111 children (1-12 years old) in the PPI sessions, and 52 children (4-6 years old) in the post-measure which also served as a pre-measure for Study 2. PPI sessions for Study 2 attracted 122 children (1-12 years old) and adults. 53 people (2-39 years old) participated in the post-measure of Study 2. Results. Following feedback in Study 1, we added a frame cue and included a shuffle animation. This increased the percentage of correct practice trials from 76% to 97% (t(231)=14.29, p<.001). After adding a cardboard demo in Study 2, the percentage of correct trials remained stable but the number of additional instructions given decreased (t(103)=3.72, p<.001). Conclusions. Our study demonstrates impact of involvement of very young children in research through accessible activities. It can encourage researchers to involve young children and contribute to developing guidelines.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.